Yes, meet Yes! A year after Rock Hall of Fame induction, two bands embark on Yes 50th anniversary tours
- ️Sat Jun 23 2018
Will the real Yes please stand up?
Is it the Yes whose current concert trek is billed as “#YES50: Celebrating 50 Years of Yes?” That tour stops Sunday, June 24, at Pechanga Resort & Casino and includes two other Southern California dates by the pioneering English progressive-rock band.
Or is it the Yes whose current concert trek is billed as “Quintessential YES: The 50th Anniversary Tour?” That tour stops Aug. 27 at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay and also includes two other Southern California dates.(Ticket information for both shows appears below.)
In both instances, the correct answer is the same: Yes. Or, as both tours refer to the two bands in advertisements: YES.
“They are both legally called Yes and I’m very grateful they are both performing,” said San Diego guitar star Mike Keneally, best known for his solo work and his collaborations with Joe Satriani and the late Frank Zappa.
“If you’re geeky about it, like I am, Yes’ music is an endless source of inspiration. On a surface level, it’s very engaging. And, on a deeper level, there’s so much to decode. I think the two Yes bands now touring are really evenly split. Because, if there’s anybody you can point to as the primary architects of Yes, for me, it’s Jon Anderson and Steve Howe. They’re both quintessential.”
Quintessential, yes — but not both in “Quintessential YES,” the band officially billed as “Yes, featuring ARW — Anderson, Rabin, Wakeman,” which began touring in 2016. It features lead singer Anderson (who co-founded Yes in 1968), keyboardist Rick Wakeman (who joined in 1971) and guitarist Trevor Rabin (who joined in 1982.)
Rabin stayed for 12 years. Anderson and Wakeman have, between them, been in and out of Yes at least eight times. For those keeping score, there were 17 lineups of Yes between 1968 and 2015, when the band’s original bassist, Chris Squire, died. He was the only member to play in all 17 versions of the group. There have been several subsequent Yes lineups in the three years since his death.
The “#YES50” tour features guitarist Steve Howe (who joined Yes in 1970), drummer Alan White (who came on board in 1972) and keyboardist Geoff Downes (who joined in 1980 and has since been in and out of the band multiple times).
They are being joined, for this tour only, by original Yes keyboardist Tony Kaye. He was in the original Yes lineup with Anderson, Squire, drummer Bill Bruford and guitarist Peter Banks, who left after the group’s first two albums and — like Squire — died in 2015.
Before he left the band for the first time in 1971, Kaye was a tennis and squash partner of singer Anderson, who now fronts the “Quintessential YES” band. Anderson’s vocal duties in this group have been handled, since 2012, by Jon Davison, the former singer in the San Diego Yes tribute band Roundabout.
Classical music? Yes. Blues? No.
Both current iterations of Yes proudly specialize in progressive rock. Half a century after its creation, prog — as it’s also called — is still a singular musical beast that draws from classical music nearly as much as rock and generally eschews even a hint of the blues.
Prog unabashedly showcases instrumental virtuosity, intricate melodies and harmonies, cosmic lyrics, constant shifts in tempo, melody and harmony, and extended songs that can reach both epic and patience-trying proportions. (The shortest selection on the 1973 Yes double-album, “Tales from Topographic Oceans,” is more than 18 minutes long.)
“One of the things I knew was unique to Yes is we were very interested in structure,” Anderson said, speaking from a recent “Quintessential YES” tour stop in Stockholm.
“If you create a song structure, you can dance on top of it and evolve it. If you listen to (the 11-minute-plus 1971 Yes song) ‘Heart of the Sunrise,’ the music is so wonderful to play — and still sounds great — because it had its own commitment to a style and a force. It can even continue to sound better every night, now, when we play it.”
Not coincidentally, both current iterations of Yes perform “Heart of the Sunrise” in concert.
Both bands also perform such other Yes favorites as “Perpetual Change” and “Roundabout,” which in 1972 earned Yes its first U.S. Top 40 hit. That hit came only after Atlantic Records trimmed “Roundabout” from its original, 8-minute-plus length to 3 minutes and 27 seconds — without informing the band — in a successful quest to gain radio airplay.
In the “Quintessential Yes” band, Anderson handles the lead vocals he sang on the original recordings. In the “#YES50” band, Davison offers a faithful approximation of Anderson’s distinctive alto-tenor vocals.
In the “Quintessential Yes” band, Wakeman plays keyboard parts and solos on songs he recorded with Yes over the decades. In the “#YES50” band, Downes plays keyboard parts and solos originally performed by Wakeman and Kaye, the latter of whom is playing some of those solos himself on the current “#YES50” tour.
Confused? You’re not alone.
“Well, it’s just a lot of Yes music!” Anderson said.
“I remember in the 1960s, in England, there were always two to three versions of The Drifters performing at the same time. So this has happened before. Somebody asked what do you think about (the other Yes)? And I said: ‘Well, it’s not my cup of tea!’ But they are all nice people and everybody has to do what they have to do.”
In a separate interview from Pennsylvania, fellow Yes charter member Kaye admitted that the concurrent tours by the two Yes bands may be perplexing.
“I think it has created some confusion with the fans,” said the keyboardist, who last toured with Yes in 1994. The longtime Los Angeles resident was enjoying being semi-retired when he was invited to join the “#YES50” tour.
“I hadn’t really thought too much about it until I came back into the Yes fold this year. I’m sure there’s probably some animosity going down. But I think it’s generally accepted that Jon (Anderson) and Rick wanted to do their thing with Trevor. This band, with Steve and Alan, obviously existed before Jon and Rick’s. And it is, by a lot of people’s standards, the Yes band. But, of course, there’s debate because the (original) singer, Jon, is not in the band.”
Yes LLC, meet Yes LLC
Until last year, when Yes was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, there was only one Yes. That’s when things started to get really complicated.
The trademark on the famous Yes logo that appears on nearly every one of the band’s albums, posters and t-shirts was registered in 1980 to Squire, Anderson and White.
The 21-year-old company Yes ‘97 LLC is co-owned by Howe, White and Squire’s estate, while the 16-year-old Yes 2002 LLC. is co-owned by Anderson, White and Squire’s estate. The four-year-old Yes Touring LLC — co-owned by Howe, White and Squire’s estate — is now apparently inactive.
Anderson, Rabin and Wakeman announced their musical partnership in 2010, but did not tour together until after the 2015 death of Squire. The trio was initially called ARW. Its first tour was billed as “An Evening of Yes Music.” What any evening of Yes music performed live by any iteration of Yes has had in common, at least since 1991, is that original Yes drummer Bill Bruford — has not been a part of it.
“Bill has always been the smart one,” said Anderson, who is now belatedly completing an album he started recording 28 years ago with Billy Cobham, Jethro Tull founder Ian Anderson, Chick Corea and then-Yes members Squire and White.
“When I saw Bill last year at our Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction, I said: “Come back in band, please.’ He said: ‘No, I’m going to continue teaching.’ And I said: ‘Yeah, you’re doing the right thing’.”
ARW’s moniker changed last spring, just three days after Yes was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The current and former members of the band who were inducted included Anderson, Kaye (who did not attend), Bruford (who quit in 1971 to join King Crimson), Howe, Wakeman, White, Rabin and — posthumously — Squire.
These eight musicians had teamed up in 1991 for a Yes tour and album, both called “Union.” It teamed the members in the then-current edition of Yes (Squire, Kaye, Rabin and White) with the members of the competing band AWBH (Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe).
“It was a happy summer vacation to play with old friends for three months and then be paid enough to feed most of Bosnia,” Bruford said in a 1995 Union-Tribune interview.
Speaking of food, in a 2004 Union-Tribune interview, Wakeman recalled the 1973 “Topographic Oceans” tour of England. During a long, keyboard-free segment at one show, he ate an Indian dinner at his keyboards — mid-concert — while the rest of the band performed.
“It wasn’t meant to be delivered on stage, but it was, and it smelled so nice I ate it,” Wakeman said. “I had a chicken vindaloo curry, with Bombay potatoes aloo, rice pilaf, papadom and naan. Unfortunately, the smell was quite strong and most of the people in the audience could smell it as well. I won’t say it went down ridiculously well (with the band), although Jon popped over and ate a papadom.”
What the members of Yes ate at last year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony is unknown.
But within three days of the induction, the offshoot band of Yes alums previously known as ARW was newly billed as (take your pick): Yes, featuring ARW; Yes, featuring Anderson, Rabin and Wakeman; and/or Yes, featuring ARW — Anderson, Rabin and Wakeman.
A longstanding agreement stipulated that the only band that could be billed as Yes was the one that included Squire. After his death, Squire’s widow told Anderson she saw no reason he, Wakeman and Rabin could not also assume the Yes name. So they did.
Wakeman has dismissed the rival group led by Howe as a “Yes tribute band.” Accordingly, Anderson believes it is unlikely he and Wakeman will ever re-team with Howe and White, but is willing to entertain the idea. And with actual Yes tribute bands flourishing as far as Italy and Brazil, Anderson sees no conflict.
“There are a lot of bands out there playing Yes music, and that’s not a bad thing,” he said. “The more people playing Yes music, the happier I am.”
“#YES50: Celebrating 50 Years of Yes”
When: 8 p.m. Sunday, June 24
Where: Pechanga Casino & Resort, 45000 Pechanga Parkway, Temecula
Tickets: $75
Phone: (800) 745-3000
Online: ticketmaster.com
“Quintessential YES: The 50th Anniversary Tour”
7:30 p.m. Aug. 27
Where: Humphreys Concerts by the Bay, 2241 Shelter Island Drive, Point Loma
Tickets: $79
Phone: (800) 745-3000
Online: ticketmaster.com
george.varga@sduniontribune.com
Twitter @georgevarga
Originally Published: June 23, 2018 at 6:40 PM PDT